Vicente Aguilar Cerezo, 76, is the owner of La Lluna de Valencia in Santa Bárbara, Costa Rica. The restaurant has been serving Spanish food in the town for 28 years.

Aguilar never received any professional training in cooking. He learned, he says, with his parents and grandparents, as one of all the housework tasks. He arrived in Costa Rica in 1982, when he was working as a consultant for United Nations projects in Central America and the Caribbean.